He nodded. ‘A magnificent voice.’
‘He’s our brother,’ Rebel claimed with pride. ‘We were all there for his premiere. The whole family. It was a marvellous night, wasn’t it, Rosalie?’
‘Yes.’
She hadn’t seen Adam Cazell at the opera and didn’t like the feeling he had watched her without her knowing. Though she had been more or less on public exhibit that night, paid to wear the dress and necklace for others to see and covet.
He leaned forward on his sofa like a big cat about to pounce. ‘Just how many are in your family, Rebel?’
She laughed. ‘Fourteen of us. Plus husbands and wives and our wonderful parents. We filled a whole box at the Met, didn’t we, darling?’ She smiled at Hugh in fond recollection.
‘We certainly did. Marvellous night,’ he echoed.
Adam nodded in agreement. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t make your acquaintance at the time. Must confess I only noticed Rosalie.’ His gaze sliced back to her, a wry little smile on his lips. ‘You were singularly spectacular.’
She returned his smile. ‘I was on parade.’
‘And the red-haired man you were with?’
‘Zachary Lee,’ Rebel happily supplied. ‘Our big brother.’
Satisfaction glinted in his eyes.
A possible competitor dismissed, Rosalie interpreted, thinking he had certainly noticed her escort, probably sizing him up and wondering how attached they were.
‘None of us are blood relations,’ she stated, feeling a strong urge to put a spoke in his wheel. ‘That’s why we don’t look alike.’
‘Uncle Zachary is the American one,’ Celeste informed him.
‘And the one we all look up to,’ Rosalie quickly slid in, not wanting Celeste to list off their multinational family, which she was clearly on the verge of doing. A change of subject was urgently needed. ‘Do you often attend the opera, Adam?’ she inquired. ‘No.’
‘It was a premiere,’ his daughter commented before he could add more. ‘Daddy’s girlfriends lu-u-uv premieres.’
‘Oh, come on, Catie,’ he chided good-naturedly. ‘I’ve taken you to a few, too. The Harry Potter film, the…’
‘Okay, okay.’ She held up her hands in mock defence. ‘He’s far more into pop music, Rosalie. You know…Saturn Records before he sold it off? He didn’t do classical stuff.’
‘Which doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it.’ Slightly more snappish on that reply.
‘I’ve never heard you play it,’ Cate argued.
‘You’re not with me all the time.’
Big blunder.
Cate’s face tightened. ‘You’re right, Dad. What do I get? Fifteen percent if I’m lucky? For all I know you could be playing opera all the time you don’t have me with you.’ She flashed a gritty look of apology at Rosalie. ‘Sorry. Shouldn’t have butted in. I can’t swear my father doesn’t like classical music.’
‘Never a good idea to speak for others,’ Rosalie tossed back with a sympathetic shrug.
Adam Cazell erased the frown evoked by Cate’s rather biting mockery, his sharply penetrating gaze targeting Rosalie again. ‘Actually, a good voice attracts my attention regardless of what is being sung.’
‘Then you must have enjoyed listening to Zuang Chi,’ she replied, wondering if and how he would respond to his daughter’s cry for more attention from him.
‘To you, as well.’
‘Me?’ What did he mean? Had she lost the thread of this conversation while thinking about Cate.
His eyes burned into hers. ‘I heard you sing at the Raffles Hotel Le Royal in Phnom Penh. You were leading a choir of orphans.’
Shock jammed her mind for several seconds. She struggled to take in the incredible coincidence of his actually being in the same place when… ‘That was…nine months ago.’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘You have a beautiful singing voice. Very pure in tone.’ His mouth quirked. ‘If I’d still been running Saturn Records, I might have tried to sign you up.’
‘Rosalie’s birth mother was a professional singer,’ Rebel remarked.
‘I’m not interested,’ she quickly cut in, shaking her head at her sister. ‘You know that.’
Rebel sighed. ‘It always seemed like a waste to me. Even Zuang Chi said…’
‘No! I don’t want to be in that world!’ The curt dismissal effectively silenced her sister. She turned back to Adam Cazell who was learning—already knew—too much about her for Rosalie’s comfort, digging, digging, digging. She turned the screw. ‘What were you doing in Phnom Penh, Adam?’
‘Scouting for my airline.’
His eyes mocked her evasive tactics.
Every muscle in her body tensed as she felt his intent to close in on her. Hunter…warrior…he embodied both those images in her mind, and for the first time in many many years, Rosalie felt vulnerable to a man.
Hugh’s old butler made a timely entrance, announcing, ‘Lunch is about to be served in the dining room, m’lord.’
‘Thank you, Brooks.’ Hugh stood up. ‘Girls, boys, Adam…’
He ushered them out, leaving the two sisters to trail after them, a move that had undoubtedly been orchestrated by some telling look from his wife. Rosalie sometimes wondered if the understanding between them was almost psychic. At least, she was momentarily relieved of Adam Cazell’s presence, but Rebel, of course, had something to say, linking arms with her for a confidential little chat.
‘He’s seriously aware of you, Rosalie. Totally captivated, I’d say,’ she murmured.
‘Rebel, I don’t care to be the ornament on any man’s arm.’
‘I’m not suggesting you should be. I just think it’s more than that. He’s really interested.’
‘He’s a playboy. You’ve heard Cate rattle off all his girlfriends.’
‘Well, maybe you should take off some time to play, too.’
Rosalie frowned at her sister. ‘Why are you selling him to me?’ Rebel had been a super saleswoman before she’d married Hugh and started a family.
A sigh. ‘I’m worried about Cate. You must have caught those touches of bitterness when she was speaking to her father. Maybe you could do some good there, Rosalie.’
‘Cate Cazell is not a lost child, Rebel. She’s strong enough to fight her own battles with her father. I thought she got in a couple of good jabs today.’
‘A parent can brush these things off, telling themselves the child is being moody, difficult. None so blind as those who don’t want to see, Rosalie. But you could make him see through your eyes. And he’d listen to you. It’s not right that Cate feels…abandoned.’
‘I don’t want to get involved with him.’
‘It needn’t be a heavy involvement.’
‘He’ll come onto me hard and fast. I know he will, given half a chance.’
‘But you’re so practised at holding men off.’
‘He’s different.’
‘Oh?’ Rebel looked fascinated.
Rosalie grimaced. ‘Don’t look at me like that. I know when something’s not safe. I know.’
A